Nothing to see here: Creativity at a premium as Norwich and Fulham labour to a goalless draw

Norwich and Fulham laboured to a goalless draw in this afternoon's Barclays Premier League clash at Carrow Road

Firing blanks: Dimitar Berbatov was unable to spark Fulham into life at Carrow Road

Luciano Becchio failed to impress on his home debut for Norwich – but Kei Kamara gave Norwich fans some hope.

This was a must-winmatch for City who, after such a great start to the ­campaign, look like they might get sucked into the relegation battle.

Yesterday was their ninth game without a win.

True
their defence has been stiffened by the pairing of Michael Turner and ­Sebastien Bassong – with two clean sheets on the spin.

But putting the ball in the net remains a huge problem for the Canaries.

They have scored only one goal in their last six league and cup games.

And, on this evidence, ­Becchio is not the answer.

Chris
Hughton insists the former Leeds striker, who has already scored 19 goals for the Yorkshire side in the Championship, can succeed in the top
flight. “He works hard and thrives on good ­delivery,” said the Norwich
boss. “But he didn’t get that and we lacked quality in the final third.”

­Becchio huffed and puffed but didn’t come anywhere near to ­blowing the ­Fulham house down.
His best ­opportunity came early in the first half when ­Javier Garrido
teed him up for a volley – but the Argentinian scuffedhis shot.

Then he headed the ball over the bar whilst under pressure from Brede Hangeland.

Apart
from a half-chance for Russell Martin – who nodded an Alex Tettey cross
over the bar – and a Bradley Johnson drilled drive, the home side failed to penetrate the ­Londoners’ rearguard.

Fulham
almost opened the scoring when Steve Sidwell’s 25-yard shot was palmed away by Mark Bunn. But the Canaries, looking to avenge a 5-0 hammering they suffered at Craven Cottage on the opening day of the season, failed
to test goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer.

The only potential ray of sunshine up front was the ­introduction of Kamara, who came on for Becchio with four minutes left of normal time.

Getty

Stalemate: Norwich and Fulham battled to a goalless draw at Carrow Road

The
28-year-old, who is on loan from Major League ­Soccer side Kansas City,
­injected much-needed ­urgency into Norwich’s play when he came on – and twice came close to breaking the deadlock.

The
Sierra Leone forward’s last appearance for Kansas came in an MLS play-off match three months ago and he had only recently returned to ­pre-season training for the American club. Hughton said: “I liked what I
saw. But we have to make sure what we do with him is right.”

The
Norwich boss spent three years as Martin Jol’s ­assistant at Tottenham and admits learning from the ­current Fulham boss was a vital part of his managerial education.

Perhaps this education ­included seeing out drab ­goalless draws.

Fulham’s
Bulgarian striker Dimitar Berbatov returned to the side after missing the Manchester United game with a hamstring problem – but Jol was fuming
that he had to go off for five minutes after an accidental kick in the face from Johnson.

“It’s ridiculous,” said Jol. “It meant that they had eleven to our ten men.

“They should change the rule so that both players should go off.

“We
were hit by a sickness bug and one of our ­debutants, Stanislav Manolev, had to come over from London in a cab because of this.

“I though Manolev did well for us in the circumstances.

“As for Berbatov, he got a bad kick in his face but, as he told me on the touchline, he is still a handsome man!